GARETH Southgate insists Boro must bow out with a bang when they take on Manchester City in their season finale tomorrow.

The Boro boss says his side will go all out to take three points from the game and ensure they finish the season on a high note, despite guaranteeing Premier League survival last week.

“There’s still the need to play well,” Southgate said.

“We’ve got the opportunity to move up a place but there’s also the chance that we could drop a place or two, so we need to finish well and take that into next season.”

And with an estimated £2.16m in Premier League merit money at stake depending on where Boro finish the season, Southgate knows that it isn’t just pride they will be playing for tomorrow.

“I think the way the Premier League is now every game’s crucial,” he said.

“There’s prize money for the club but also pride. We’re above Sunderland now and we’d like to stay above them and we’ve also got the chance to overtake Wigan as well as they have a very tough game. We want to finish strongly.”

Boro banished any lingering relegation fears with victory against Portsmouth last week and Southgate admits it is a huge relief to be able to go into the season finale knowing they are safe from the drop.

And the Boro boss hopes that with the pressure off, his players can relax and put in an improved performance against City.

“You certainly wouldn’t want to be going into this weekend needing points,” he said.

“The last two seasons we’ve taken until the penultimate Saturday to get ourselves safe and they were edgy games. So a week further on it would be more difficult.

“I think we’ve been playing under enormous pressure for the majority of the season. When you have the start

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that we had then it puts you on the back foot throughout.

“We’ve always been scrapping for points, even games we’ve won have been by the odd goal and that has put the pressure on us.

“We’ve played under pressure the whole time but I think a lot of the players will be stronger for that. And I think that they’ve sensed a togetherness through that adversity and for me it was important that they showed those qualities.”

Changes will undoubtedly be made to the Boro squad in the summer and Southgate believes the performance against City could tell him a great deal about what needs to be done ahead of next season.

“I think it will tell me a lot about their mentality,” he said.

“We are mathematically safe in terms of relegation, which we’ve been on the fringes of all season, but it depends on what we want to do as a team.

“Do we want to finish with a whimper which will underline certain things to me? Or are we prepared to start what we want to do next season now? Finish with the right mentality and attitude and take it into next season?”

Boro have rarely dazzled at home this season, winning just six league games at the Riverside. And Southgate believes the players owe it to the fans to put on a good show tomorrow.